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From: ld@hpda.UUCP (Larry Dwyer)
Newsgroups: net.tv.da
Subject: Re: Was the EMP realistic.  Probably not - (nf)
Message-ID: <499@hpda.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 27-Nov-83 21:26:02 EST
Article-I.D.: hpda.499
Posted: Sun Nov 27 21:26:02 1983
Date-Received: Thu, 1-Dec-83 20:44:31 EST
Sender: ld@hpda.UUCP
Organization: Hewlett Packard, Cupertino
Lines: 34

#R:watmath:-617800:hpda:18300001:000:1431
hpda!ld    Nov 27 17:10:00 1983

The very least they could have  done  with  the  electro-magnetic
pulse  (EMP) was to have it arrive at the same time as the flash.
It seems to me that both electro-magnetic waves and  light  waves
travel at the speed of light (or the speed of sound, or the speed
of a snail, or some such thing).

Of course, if Hollywood had ARRANGED it to arrive  simultaneously
with  the flash, no one would have noticed the meter in the auto-
mobile flopping to-and-fro because they would have  been  blinded
(at  least  temporarily)  by the brilliance of the flash.  From a
television point of view, this would not have  made  a  very  in-
teresting  shot.  This demonstrates that TDA was just another at-
tempt by the mogols in tinseltown to try  to  make  a  fast  buck
(claiming  it  was  as  accurate  as  possible to get everyone to
watch).

The EMP, which is generated in the first millisecond (or  so)  of
the blast, is highly destructive of transistorized equipment, but
automobile ignition systems should survive.   It  might  peg  the
daylights  out of some of the sensitive meters in a car (the ones
with lots of windings), but not the entire electrical system.

By the way, if it is not true that the both wave fronts would ar-
rive  at  the  same  time,  then  someone  ought  to patent these
faster-than-light waves and sell them to the SETI people who  can
use it to send messages to the stars!


		Larry Dwyer
		ucbvax!hpda!ld